New algorithms may be able to charge mobile devices twice as fast

For the longest time, battery manufacturers have mostly only been focusing on how to make lithium-ion batteries smaller and thinner, while still offering as much capacity as possible. However, researchers are now coming up with ways to make lithium-ion batteries charge up quicker — more specifically, twice as fast than the average charge time.

The new algorithms that researchers have discovered simply track exactly where lithium ions are within the battery cells to allow for a more accurate battery reading. The way that batteries charge now is less efficient, meaning that it takes no time at all to charge your phone to 80%, but the last 20% usually takes forever. Once the battery hits an 80% charge, it will start to slowly allow small sips of electricity into the battery until it thinks that it’s completely full, based upon software calculations.

However, these new algorithms with completely get rid of the slowness that occurs during that last 20%, and then some. By simply knowing exactly how full a battery is at all times in its charging process, it will no longer have to slow down and guess how full it is. It sounds like a simple idea that makes us wonder why this wasn’t the plan in the first place.

This new technology actually isn’t so advanced and so expensive that it would be a long way off, and the researchers say that the new charging technology will easily be in devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops. In other words, you won’t be hard-pressed to find it in most consumer electronics in a few years.